It is difficult to study the Minor Prophets and not see America because the similarities between ancient Israel and the current state of affairs jump off the page. Consider for example, Micah 7:2: “The faithful man has perished from the earth and there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; every man hunts his brother with a net.” Micah lamented the fact that there were seemingly no righteous people to be found. Instead, people hunted each other like hunting animals (7:2), had a passion for practicing evil (7:3), and found themselves at the mercy of crooked politicians and those who would bribe them (7:3-4). It is easy to imagine being discouraged in that kind of setting, but Micah was not. Though man could not be trusted (7:5-6), God could, and still can–“Therefore I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; My God will hear me” (Micah 7:7).
One of the great struggles of being in the world but not of the world is the constant bombardment of evil on every side. Those who “abhor what is evil and cling to what is good” (Rom. 12:9) long to see truth and righteousness prevail and are troubled by its absence. But what we must remember is that this world is not our home. The “whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (1 John 5:19) and so wickedness is generally the rule, not the exception. That does not mean that we should throw up our hands and give up. Far from it. We should fight tirelessly for the cause of truth in every domain. But if or when wickedness prevails, we should not allow ourselves to become overly discouraged, instead we should look to the Lord and find strength and comfort in Him.
Like us, Asaph struggled with this concept until he came to an important recognition–“When I thought how to understand this, it was too painful for me until I went into he sanctuary of God; then I understood their end” (Ps. 73:16-17). Not all accounts are settled in this life, so do not be discouraged. Keep fighting and look to the Lord.